A Dauphin County jury that is weighing the case against Rashawn Mosley for a 2004 murder in Harrisburg told Judge Scott A. Evans this afternoon that it is having difficulty reaching a verdict.

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The jurors have been deliberating since Thursday morning. Earlier today, they asked to review a recorded statement Mosley, 26, made to police nearly eight years ago regarding the slaying of Christopher Thompson, 23, in Hall Manor.

Mosley is accused of fatally shooting Thompson during a robbery that occurred when Thompson and a friend drove to Hall Manor in the middle of the night to buy heroin.

Mosley on Wednesday recanted the recorded 2004 statement in which police said he confessed to Thompson's murder. His stepbrother, Christopher Stephenson, also recanted a statement he gave to police in 2004 implicating Mosley in the killing.

In asking to hear Mosley's 2004 statement again, the jurors told Evans they wanted to try to gauge whether it was given voluntarily or, as Mosley claimed, was coerced by police.

When the jury told Evans of its difficulties he told the jurors to go back to the deliberation room and "wipe the slate clean, start things over."

"I don't think we can find another jury better than you folks to decide this case," Evans said.

Mosley pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in 2005 for Thompson's slaying and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in state prison. He appealed and in 2010 the state Superior Court sent the case back to the county for trial.

Charges the jury is weighing include first- and second-degree murder. A conviction on either of those counts would send Mosley to prison for life.

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